You go faster if you tack a lot, right?..

On a day when Sarah was visiting family for the day, my dad took on the role of First Mate aboard the Briskwater for a day of sailing. His dad, my grandpa, was an avid sailor for the last 40+ years of his life, so I feel like I am honoring him somewhat by voyaging around the San Juans via sailboat.

We started from Deer Harbor Marina, and our goal was the Orcas ferry landing, where I would drop dad off to take the ferry home and pick Sarah up from an incoming ferry later in the day.

Leaving Deer Harbor, we promptly put up the sails and decided to sail around the south side of Crane Island (see map). This was decided mainly because the narrow Pole Pass to the north of Crane has a few shallow edges, not ideal for maneuvering through under sail. Plus, the southern route would give us more sail time.

The wind was light in the harbor, but as is the case throughout the San Juans, it picked up when we were between islands (Crane and Wasp) at the harbor's entrance. Then, just as quickly, the wind died down between Crane and Shaw (the big land mass to the south of Orcas).

We were headed toward the wind from this point on, which meant much tacking and watching the land for wind tell-tales (flags or windsocks that indicate wind strength and direction). At one point, we sailed quite close to land, prompting me to point out how I'd never sailed that close; right then and there, the wind of course died down right away, so I pulled the motor to a start to push away from the nearby shore (southwest of Broken Point).

Once we cleared Broken Point, it was a straight shot to the ferry dock, but since we were still headed into the wind, there was a lot of tacking. The wind had picked up (just look at the size of the passage between Broken and the ferry!), which allowed us to sail at the day's top speed of 5.2 kt.

At about 4:45, we could see the ferry rounding the corner of Lopez and headed toward Shaw Island, which is right across the way and the stop before the Orcas ferry landing (only about 10 minutes before). This caused dad to make the choice between catching the 5:20 or the 8:45 ferry; he chose to take the 5:20 ferry, which meant motoring from about half a nm out and docking at the public dock near the ferry dock.

After tying up at the public dock, I dropped dad off to catch his ferry (with plenty of time to spare). I then waved bye as his newer, bigger boat sailed off, and 3 hours later, Sarah was landing in the 8:45 ferry from Anacortes. From there, we motored back to Deer Harbor for another discount night's stay, and planned our next trip, Eastsound.